Cairo: A law, being drafted by the Egyptian government to penalise critics of the country’s recent popular uprisings, threatens to muzzle political dissent, rights advocates and political experts have warned.

Last week, President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi said the law will be issued soon, criminalising what he called “insulting” the revolts that toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and his successor Islamist Mohammad Mursi two years later.

The law is seen as mainly designed to placate disenchanted backers of the anti-Mubarak revolt largely branded in pro-Al Sissi media as a foreign conspiracy.

Specific penalties in the disputed law are not clear yet.

“The mere talk about incriminating insult to any revolution constitutes suppression of freedom and rights,” Najad Al Buraei, a rights campaigner, said.

“Stipulations of this law will be vague because it is difficult to set rules for criminalising a certain opinion. Such a law will be used to restrict freedoms,” he added.

Thousands of activists, mainly Islamists, have been detained and put on trial since last year when the army, led at the time by Al Sissi, deposed Mursi following enormous street protests against his one-year rule.

Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood has denounced his removal as a military coup and vowed to reinstate him despite a draconian security crackdown.

Meanwhile, dozens of pro-democracy secularists, who mobilised the uprising that eventually forced Mubarak to step down, have been jailed for holding illegal protests amid a ferocious media campaign accusing them of being foreign agents.

Staunch backers of Al Sissi like ex-lawmaker Mustafa Bakri is critical of the planned bill

“This law will mark a serious turning point in the course of freedom. It will place restrictions on historians who seek to evaluate this period,” Bakri said in a Facebook post. “I hope that President Al Sissi whom I trust as a defender of freedom and the truth will stop the issuance of this law.”

Al Sissi temporarily holds legislative power until a new parliament is elected next year.

Playing down the significance of the move, Wahid Abdul Majuid, an expert at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, urged Al Sissi to come up with a clear plan to fulfil objectives of the anti-Mubarak revolt.

“What is required is to take firm action to reverse the oppressive policies that were followed before the January 25 revolution,” he said, referring to the day when the 18-day uprising began against Mubarak.

“The mere halt of verbal attacks on this revolution will not fulfil its objectives: freedom, dignity and social justice.”

Detractors of Al Sissi accuse him of being an extension of the Mubarak regime, an accusation repeatedly denied by the former army general.

Several politicians have praised the planned bill. One of them is George Ishaq, a leading participant in the anti-Mubarak uprising.

“The situation at hand requires such a law,” Ishaq told independent newspaper Al Youm Al Saba.

“Calling the January 25 revolution a foreign conspiracy is an unacceptable crime. Once signed, this law should be strictly applied.”